Bears Stays Atop The Ivy Standings With 38-21 Victory Over Yale

New Haven, Conn. -
In a battle for first place in the Ivy League standings, senior All-American Nick Hartigan ran for 192 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead Brown to a 38-21 Ivy League victory over Yale. The win keeps the Bears in a first place tie in the Ivy League with Princeton at 4-1 in the Ivy standings. Brown is now 7-1 overall, winning seven or more games for the ninth time since the Ivy League was formed in 1956, while Yale falls to 3-5 overall and 3-2 in Ivy play.

Hartigan, the nation's leading rusher and Walter Payton Award finalist, turned in another big game performance, with touchdown runs of 34, 30 and nine yards, while catching a four-yard touchdown pass. He moved over the 4,000-yard rushing mark for his career and ran for 100 or more yards for the 21st time in his career.

Hartigan's 192 yards came on 33 carries, and he now has 1,305 yards on the ground for the season, and 4,070 career rushing yards. He also moved into third place in all-time Ivy League scoring, now with 294 career points.

Junior All-American linebacker Zak DeOssie had an immediate impact on the game when he blocked a Yale field goal early in the first quarter, giving the Bears good field position at its own 54-yard line. Unfortunately for the Bears, DeOssie left the game early in the quarter with an undisclosed injury.

Three plays after DeOssie's blocked field goal, Hartigan dodged several Yale defenders and scampered 34 yards down the sideline and into the end zone to give the Bears a 7-0 lead with 9:19 left in the first quarter.

Following a Yale touchdown that evened the score, 7-7, Brown mounted a 64-yard scoring drive, capped off by five-yard scoring pass from junior quarterback Joe DiGiacomo to Hartigan, the second receiving touchdown of Hartigan's career.

The Elis evened the score, 14-14, on a 25-yard pass play, capping an 82-yard scoring drive, with 2:20 left in the first half.

Brown struck again just before the end of the first half. Yale's attempt at a squib kickoff struck a Brown player at midfield and the Bears recovered at the Yale 46-yard line. Five plays later, senior Jarrett Schreck caught a bullet pass from DiGiacomo at the Bulldogs 15-yard line and ran the rest of the way into the end zone with 36 seconds remaining in the half to give the Bears a 21-14 advantage at intermission.

Brown opened the scoring in the second half on its first possession, driving 70 yards in six plays with Hartigan scoring his third touchdown of the game, this time running into the end zone from 30 yards out to give the Bears a 28-14 advantage with 12:30 left in the third quarter.

Following a Yale punt, Brown extended its lead to 21 points, 35-14, by driving 60 yards in seven plays, with Hartigan bursting into the end zone from the nine yard line with 6:11 left in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs got back into the game on its next series with an 83-yard drive, scoring on a 51-yard run late in the quarter.

Sophomore kicker Steve Morgan extended the Brown advantage to 38-21 early in the fourth quarter with a 27-yard field goal at the 11:50 mark. Morgan's 16th field goal of the season tied him with Princeton's Charlie Gogolak in the Ivy League record book. Morgan's eight points for the game (5 of 5 extra points) gives him 82 points for the season, fourth best in Ivy football history, and just two points shy of the Ivy League record of 84 kick-scoring points by Yale's John Troost in 2003.

With Yale driving down the field, senior captain Jamie Gasparella came up with the defensive play of the game for the Bears when he picked off his fifth pass of the season in the end zone to stop a Yale drive with 8:33 remaining in the game.

Sophomore Matt Mullenax and Jose Yearwood led the Bears' defense with seven total tackles, with Mullenax making seven solo stops. Senior James Frazier, who moved to linebacker from defensive end after DeOssie's injury, registered six total hits.

The Bears will be back in action for their final home game of the season against the Dartmouth Big Green on Saturday, November 12th. Game time is 12:30 p.m. at Brown Stadium.